A million years ago, the cinetrix read this little verse in a book review, and it's stuck with me ever since.
And then there are the Bright Young Things
Who stay up half the night
Though some of them are not so young,
And some are not so bright.
The cinetrix wanted to like Bright Young Things, really she did, darlings. But alas and alack, this Jazz Age trifle was neither young nor bright enough in the end, though it glittered in bits. The movie was hampered by featherweight characterizations and a script by director Stephen Fry that had me wishing I'd just read Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, from which it was adapted. And by "just" I mean immediately before pressing "play." The Splendidiser , which translates sentences and URLs into zingy 1920s slang, is the most smashing aspect of this terribly disappointing film by far.
Pity, too, as the cinetrix is a big fan of Fry's, having read his books and pressed his work as Jeeves opposite Hugh Laurie's Bertie Wooster on all and sundry as the definitive portrayal. Hell, way back in the early 90s, I even meant to see him in some West End production, only to learn he'd done a Manic Street Preachers-style runner from the play earlier in the week.
The saving grace, as others have noted, is Fenella Woolgar, and not simply because she's the only woman alive who could play Eurotrash in a movie. Her delightful party girl gets short shrift when it comes to screen time, but when she's on screen, you can't look at anyone else.
